If you have friends or relatives in care homes, or live in one yourself, you may be familiar with what is often the standard offer. Residents are kept behind locked doors, rarely granted a walk outside, instead stuck in armchairs in front of blaring televisions, surrounded by equipment redolent of medical rather than domestic spaces, deprived of the ability to make decisions about almost anything. A care home might be a big old house awkwardly converted, or a new-build as ruthlessly cost-efficient as a distribution centre or a budget hotel. Even where staff and management are genuinely committed to the wellbeing of residents (and there are reported instances where this is not the case), it seems hard to escape the pervasive deadening formula.
This, even if you are not yet old and don’t suffer from dementia, is something about which you should care, as the above is a future that could be coming for you. It’s an issue for society in general, as the population ages. It’s also an area where architecture has a role to play, as the physical environment can demonstrably improve or harm the wellbeing of residents. Done right, design can make the care of elderly people less stressful and more effective. It can reduce the need for expensive medical and other interventions.
